Thursday, January 5, 2017

Stephen Flurry Uses Hyslop's Nonsense to Demonize Christmas

In a recent episode of PCG's Trumpet Daily (December 26, 2016) PCG's heir apparent, Stephen Flurry, after excoriating President Obama for abstaining to vote on a recent UN Security Council resolution discussed a 5,000 year old nativity scene found in Egypt. He exploits news of this discovery to promote his views regarding Nimrod which are derived from The Two Babylons by Alexander Hyslop, an anti-Catholic polemic dating from the 1850s.

He states that when Eve gave birth to Cain she thought that Cain was the Messiah and this misconception created a dysfunctional relationship between the two that led to Cain's murder of Abel.

He then discusses Nimrod and asserts that he created a pagan religion that essentially the entire world imitated. He cites Mystery of the Ages by HWA, Satan's Great Deception by C. Paul Meredith and Hyslop. However both HWA and C. Paul Meredith's writings about Nimrod are derived from Hyslop. So there is only one real source for these paranoid views about Nimrod cited in this broadcast, namely Hyslop.

Hyslop asserted that most Catholic practices were a direct imitation of the Babylonian religion as he described it.

Stephen Flurry never mentions in his broadcast that Alexander Hyslop was a Presbyterian. In all likelihood he worshiped on Sunday. It is never explained that Hyslop's point was to vilify the Roman Catholic Church. The very subtitle of the book is "The Papal Worship Proved to Be the Worship of Nimrod and His Wife." But HWA adapted Hyslop's ideas to demonize the Protestant Churches in general in order to lure away potential converts who may be loyal to such churches.

But Hyslop's writings are nonsense as xHWA showed in his posts, The Two Babylons and The Babylon Connection. It is mentioned that at different points of The Two Babylons Hyslop asserted that Semiramis was Nimrod's wife, elsewhere his mother and elsewhere even his daughter. HWA tried to reconcile this by insisting that Semiramis was Nimrod's mother and his wife. But he said nothing about Semiramis being Nimrod's daughter.

Stephen Flurry followed HWA's understanding and also insisted that Semiramis was Nimrod's mother-wife. But listening to this I could not help but think how easy it would be for a listener unfamiliar with Armstrongism to know what he was alluding to.

It is unfortunate that PCG's leaders are using a discredited, anti-Catholic polemic from the 1850s to demonize mainstream Churches and common holidays such as Christmas and Easter. There is nothing wrong for a Christian in celebrating such festivals. And they are certainly not the creation of some fanciful "Babylonian religion" that sprang from Hyslop's anti-Catholic imagination.

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Hand in Hand for Syria

Keep Somalia's Remittances Open

I encourage readers to sign this petition from Oxfam calling upon the U.S. government to let the Somali diaspora continue to send remittance to their loved ones in Somalia.

Moves have been made to shut down such remittances from Somalis in America. Many Somalis need these remittances. The remittances to Somalia are larger than foreign aid contributions and are a lifeline to these people caught in trouble and turmoil.

It is true that HWA said that some Eastern European states would break away from Moscow's orbit and join the European Empire he said would arise at any moment. But he never talked of the Soviet Union collapsing. He did not teach that. Also he portrayed the rise of the European Empire to be far quicker then what has actually happened. In Mystery of the Ages Christ was supposed to return by 2005 at the most.

So assertions that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow prove that HWA was right is just complete nonsense spread by people who, for whatever reason, are still in denial that HWA was a false prophet who merely talked out of his own "human reasoning".

Truth about Roderick C. Meredith

What sort of man is he? A man who could say things like this.

"Mr. Armstrong has reminded us again that we are to disfellowship any members who attend GTA's [Garner Ted Armstrong's] campaigns, church services or other meetings. Some of our weaker members apparently do not realize that this man is in direct rebellion against God and His government! We must not allow them, or ourselves, to rationalize about this matter, to try to "help the underdog," or in any other way lend support to one whose gross immorality, whose long standing "play acting" and hypocrisy, and whose direct insubordination to the Government of God has long been and is now a source of confusion and DIVISION among God's people. So, as per Mr. Armstrong's instruction, I charge and exhort every one of you faithful ministers of the living Christ to explain this in no uncertain terms to your members, to warn them about this cause of division and then to disfellowship any who consort with GTA or any of his fellows." (Roderick C. Meredith, Pastor's Report, May 21, 1979, pp. 1-2.)

David Robinson on Roderick C. Meredith

"During the ten years I have been an employee of the Worldwide Church, you have been poorly spoken of by most of the ministers and employees I have known. I vividly remember the absolute unbounded glee that was openly expressed by a good number of respected men in the church when you were first "shanghaied." [In 1972.] I could begin by naming names, which I am sure would shock you. I was one of the few who stood, where possible, for you. Your tenure as superintendent of ministers, as I believe the office was then called, was looked on as nightmarish. While you held office during the years of growth, most of those whom I know gave you very little credit for that growth. Almost everyone whom I know, whether they be former friends of yours, or continuing foes, recalls insensitive and terrible things you have done. Without exception, at least among my acquaintances, they all credit you with an unbridled lust for power and list you as one who is willing to pay the price of gaining that power, no matter what. I have, through many of the last few years, believed you had principles you would not violate. Many a man of experience in the church assured me of my error. Events have proven me wrong and them right. Mr. Armstrong has himself been widely quoted as saying of you that you were so righteous that you were so "righteous you were unrighteous." " (David Robinson, Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web, Chapter 16, p. 207.)

Of course it is impossible for me to personally verify these assertions but people deserve to know what this knowledgeable man had to say about him.